Tobacco is addictive. Every moment of every day and night, all across America, there are people smoking tobacco. What happens when these “smokers” do not get to light up their cigarettes on time and as anticipated? Other than a lot of irritability, not much happens. Despite the enormous number of tobacco-related deaths each year, adults are nevertheless trusted to moderate their private use of tobacco.

Alcohol is addictive. Usually in the evening, but not always, there are people all across America drinking alcohol. What happens when these people do not get their alcohol on time and as anticipated? Well, depending upon the individual’s level of past alcohol use, there are varying degrees of negative consequences associated with alcohol withdrawal, e.g., headache, loss of appetite, and even seizures in extreme cases. Despite the enormous number of alcohol-related deaths each year, adults are nevertheless trusted to moderate their private use of alcohol.

If Americans can be trusted to get “wired,” “buzzed,” and/or “drunk,” then they can be trusted to use medical marijuana while under the supervision of a licensed physician. Compared to coffee, tobacco, and alcohol, medical marijuana is an innocuous substance. There has never been a single death associated with the use of medical marijuana. Never. The most dangerous side effect of medical marijuana is the criminal law, but the benefits of the plant are too long to list for some people suffering from cancer, AIDS, MS, and other chronic diseases or ailments. Why can’t these people have the choice of a medicine that can be grown practically for free?

Cannabis is more closely related to willow bark (aspirin) than the poppy plant (heroin), yet the Federal Government currently classifies medical marijuana along with heroin because it thinks medical marijuana is a joke. It is not a joke. Free countries should not punish people for following the advice of their doctor. It is past time for Congress to recognize the obvious: there is a distinction between the use of marijuana and the abuse of marijuana. How can the ordinary, reasonable, and prudent person identify this difference? Easy: just ask your doctor for the answer.

Kenneth Michael White is an attorney and the author of “The Beginning of Today: The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937” and “Buck” (both by PublishAmerica 2004).

For more information visit: http://www.thebeginningoftoday.com/

Source: Frontiers of Freedom (VA)
Author: Kenneth Michael White
Published: July 04, 2006
Copyright: 2006 Frontiers of Freedom
Website: http://www.ff.org/
Contact: opeds@opeds.com

Related Articles:

Marijuana From the Patient’s Point of View
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21959.shtml

House OKs Medical Pot Prosecutions
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21951.shtml

Our cause will feel such a loss.

Ok. I'm baked. Thank you God for Cannabis. Watch over Jerry and Linda until we can send them more help and hope.

Wage peace on war. END CANNABIS PROHIBITION NOW!

The active substance in cannabis, thujone, creates Atrial natriuretic peptides which stimulates the consequent reactions in the body.

Whoever wrote this mixed up wormwood(absinthe) with cannabis. Since this is kind of pivotal to the story, the whole thing makes no sense. Would not just growing industrial hemp do the same thing? Lots of pollen from hemp would be 'in the air'. Most wild strains of cannabis would eventually cross with the hemp.

LWW Documentary To Be Filmed During Tour

Scientists from the Russian city of St. Petersburg have announced they had managed to develop a new, drug-free variant of cannabis which, if grown on industrial level, would cross with wild growing hemp end eventually force it out of existence.

Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted Sergei Grigoryev of the Russian Plant Institute as saying that the amount of psychotropic substance in the new variant of cannabis is practically zero. When the new plant is crossed with the wild growing hemp the amount of psychotropic substance in the latter will gradually become less and less. If Russian hemp is grown on industrial level, it could even force the cannabis that is used for making hashish and marijuana out of existence.

The active substance in cannabis, thujone, creates Atrial natriuretic peptides which stimulates the consequent reactions in the body.

The medical controversy of cannabis lies in the potential harmful versus helpful effects. As a professionally administered drug, cannabis has been used in alleviating pain for cancer patients, helps to stimulate appetites of HIV afflicted persons, relieving inflammation of the gastro-intestinal tract, and is known to open up the blood vessels improving circulation among its various proclaimed benefits. In conjunction with its benefits are the risks it subjects users to, among those being muscular attributes given to schizophrenics, muscular incoordination, dizziness, difficulty concentrating, confusion, difficulty walking, dysarthria, dry mouth, dysphagia, blurred vision, and vomiting most of all, as with opening up the blood vessels can produce the condition of excess blood volume which results in comas and cardiac arrest, leading to death.

The scientist went on to say that hemp is one of the oldest agricultural plants with 10 thousand-year history and at present it is “unjustly” associated with drugs like marijuana. Hemp must be used to make traditional fibers and oil, Grigoriyev said.

http://mosnews.com/news/2006/06/20/nocannabis.shtml

While new plans in the Netherlands to further liberalise its drug policies have met with great support within the country, its neighbours look on in horror Do coffeshops works? (Michiel Schipper) Three years as the mayor of Maastricht have changed the attitude of Gerd Leers towards liberal drug policies. Once a strong supporter of prohibition, he recently proposed the creation of ‘cannabis boulevards’ in border areas outside the city to counter problems linked with cross-border drug tourism. He is also in favour of the regulation of the sale of cannabis to coffeeshops. This is a direct move to counter a flourishing black-market, for while selling cannabis may be legal in the Netherlands, its production is definitely not.

The Maastricht coffee shops attract around 1.5 million drug tourists every year, mostly from Germany, Belgium and France. These young people are drawn to buying their dope in the Netherlands like moths to a flame. The enormous demand created by these tourists causes serious disturbances in the city centre, and more importantly, causes an increase in drug related crime.

Flawed pragmatism

Since 1976, the Dutch government has decriminalised the distribution and use of cannabis in so-called coffeeshops. These cafes are authorised to sell up to five grams of cannabis to people over 18. The idea behind this policy is the pragmatic belief that a separation between soft and hard drugs is desirable. It is thought that it’s far better for a cannabis user to get his weed in a safe, legal and friendly environment than in the hard and criminal world of street dealing, where you are only one step away from harder drugs.

The figures support this policy. In the Netherlands, the only Western country where cannabis is ‘legally’ sold, only 13% of its youth use the drug. According to a survey by the UNODC, in countries where possession and use is penalised a bigger percentage of youth use cannabis: Belgium, Ireland, USA (17%), UK (20%) and France (22%). In addition, in the Netherlands only 3 out of every 1000 people in the age range of 15-64 are addicted to hard drugs. In Luxembourg, the UK, Italy, Portugal and Denmark it’s 7 to 10 per 1000. In the Netherlands there is only one drug fatality on every 100,000 people, while in Denmark it’s five and Norway it’s eight per 100,000.

In Maastricht, the daily influx of nearly 4,000 drug tourists creates an additional demand (on top of the Dutch demand) for hundreds of kilos of cannabis. This cannabis needs to be produced, and it is here that the flaw in the Dutch model comes to light. The bizarre thing is, cannabis is allowed to be sold, but coffee shops have no place to legally purchase their stock. The ‘front door’ of the coffee shop is regulated but the ‘back door’ is left unguarded. “It is like telling a baker that he can sell bread but is not allowed to buy flour,” Leers told AFP recently.

Lynn, we would that you lie in green fields for eternity ...

Peace to you and all who educate ...

--------------------------

Sweating like that is endemic of the southeast, 'specially Fla, Ga, SC, and DC. The weather in DC in summer caused some nations to pay diplomats a hardship allowance for being stationed in DC during the summer.

No excuse for Bush, though, he has many reasons to sweat.

http://www.mapinc.org/ccnews/v06/n884/a01.html

PS: We saw Bush talking but didn't want to hear what he was saying but when he turned around he was sweating badly. His whole back was soaked. I have only seen sweating like that when a person is doing drugs and drinking. I wonder if anyone else noticed it.

Dear NORML Supporters,

With a heavy heart I pass on the news of the passing of a dear friend to NORML and personal mentor: Lynn Zimmer, Ph. D.

Below Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance and Lynn’s close friend has penned a brief obituary.

The only two brief items I can add are that Lynn served on NORML’s Board of Directors from 1995-1999 and that she provided me a cherished (and informative) gift as she came to terms with her physical ailments.

Some years back I was on a live radio show for one hour in NYC taking calls on the topic of ‘why is marijuana illegal?’ An advocate for marijuana law reform called the show and took me to task for not highlighting the Anslinger-DuPont-Mellon 'conspiracy' as the root cause of marijuana’s long and tortured prohibition. While obviously supportive of marijuana law reform I disagreed with the caller and cited a number of state and municipal anti-marijuana statutes that well pre-date the incorrect, but oft-cited Anslinger-DuPont-Mellon conspiracy era.

A few days later I received a letter from Lynn indicating that she’d listened to show and asked me to stop by her home the next time I was NYC. I had such an occasion to be in NYC a few weeks later and Lynn gave me a great, wonderfully framed under glass full-page newspaper article from 1929 (from Greenwich Village, NYC). The article entitled ‘A Home-Grown New Drug That Drives Its Victims Mad’ is a terrific and breathtaking example of reefer madness and Lynn wanted NORML’s archives to have a prime example of pre-federal prohibition (1937) propaganda.

The historical article is on display at NORML’s national office in Washington, DC.

If you've not read 'Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts' (by Lynn Zimmer, Ph.D and John Morgan, M.D.), in honor of Lynn and for your own edification, get a copy ASAP for your personal library.

The board, staff and membership of NORML owe Lynn Zimmer, a notable and articulate truth teller, great thanks and we wish the best to her children and loved ones.

Regards,

Allen St. Pierre Executive Director NORML/NORML Foundation Washington, DC director@norml.org

****************** Lynn Zimmer, Ph.D died July 2nd at the age of 59. Professor Zimmer, a sociologist at Queens College, City University of New York, was widely regarded among both drug policy scholars and activists as the most original thinker on drug issues in the United States. With her friend and colleague Dr. John P. Morgan, she co-authored Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts, the leading and best-selling scholarly book on marijuana; it has been translated and published in seven languages to date. She also published extensively on other drug issues, including drug testing, drug education, and drugs and the media, and appeared often on radio and TV programs.

Professor Lynn Zimmer received both The Lindesmith Award for Achievement in the Field of Scholarship from the Drug Policy Foundation and the Lester Grinspoon Award for Achievement in the Field of Marijuana Law Reform from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in 2000. She was looked to as an intellectual leader in the growing drug policy reform movement. She was a fierce critic of drug prohibition and the nation‚s harsh drug war policies but also a keen skeptic of arguments for full legalization. Her insights into drug use and addiction, as well as the various roles of drugs in society, were unparalleled. Before working on drug issues, Lynn Zimmer authored Women Guarding Men, a path breaking study of women hired as guards in men‚s prisons that examined the painful process of transition from a segregated to an integrated prison environment. Lynn Zimmer was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2000. This disease took away much of her eyesight, sense of taste, and mobility but never diminished her remarkable mind. She was a beloved teacher and friend to many. She is survived by two sons, Joseph and Mark Zimmer. ---

Freedom is the responsibility of ALL OF US, not just our men and women in uniform. Anyone can threaten our rights with the flick of a wrist, whether it be a dictator 6,000 miles away, or 6,000 dictators here at home.

We need to stand up and voice our concern about our rights. We need to have the courage to say unpopular things if those unpopular things also happen to be what is RIGHT.

I'll leave you all with this for your 4th of July enjoyment. Webster's definition of a patriot is "One who loves, supports, and defends one's country." I think for all effects and purposes, most people have forgotten about the 'defend' part of that definition. A TRUE patriot must be willing and ready to defend his people against its government.

"I was just wondering whether the Marijuana addict graduates into heroin, an opium, or a cocaine user?

Harry Anslinger's answer:

"No, Sir. I have not heard of a single case of that kind. I think it is an entirely different class. The marijuana addict does not go in that direction,"

Eighteen years later, in response to a similar question by Senator Price Daniel, he replied:

Are we supposed to celebrate that we are more free than Muslim countries? Are we supposed to celebrate that we have more freedom than the Chinese?

Sort of a "Yay...we don't have what we used to, and we are losing more all the time, but we have more than they do!"

Runruff is in prison for a plant. Frankly I don't feel all that celebratory of freedom today.

Americans are no longer safe from unreasonable search and seizure. They can no longer feel secure in their homes and papers.

Let's see. Oh yeah...we still have the freedom to pay taxes!

Yay! Whoop de doo.

Bush isn't Stalin or Hitler! Something to celebrate I guess.

I'm thankful we still have enough freedom of speech to be able to complain about it all.

Because it can be grown practically for free...

SHADOW OF THE SWASTIKA: The Real Reason the Government Won't Debate Medical Cannabis and Industrial Hemp Re-legalization: http://www.hempfarm.org/Papers/Shadow_of_the_Swastika.html